Current Medical Periodicals of Chemical Interest - Advances in

Current Medical Periodicals of Chemical Interest M A G D A L E N E FREYDER

Downloaded by UNIV OF ROCHESTER on September 2, 2017 | http://pubs.acs.org Publication Date: January 1, 1956 | doi: 10.1021/ba-1956-0016.ch008

American Medical Association, Chicago, Ill.

Tremendous increase of literature in the postwar years has heightened the difficulty of keeping abreast of printed reports. Therefore, it is important for chemists to know titles and sources of journals and bibliographic tools in which they are included. This paper surveys the field by furnishing this information, and discusses the influence on current periodical literature of chemical advances which affect medical research and clinical medicine.

T h e qualifying phrase i n the title might well have been omitted because practically every issue of most medical periodicals contains at least one such article. When that part of the title is eliminated, current medical periodicals remain, and the first question: " W h a t is a medical periodical?" " O n e that deals w i t h medicine" is the most obvious answer, but medicine is so intimately related to so many branches of science—bacteriology, psychology, physics, meteorology, and especially chemistry— that definite limits are not easy to determine. I n medical l i b r a r y work, the Journal of Bacteriology, The Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, and the Journal of Biological Chemistry are considered just as much a part of medical literature as The American Journal of Medicine or the British Medical Journal. No general agreement on this point is indicated by various lists of so-called medical periodicals. The Indexing Research Project at the Welch Medical L i b r a r y , Johns Hopkins University, prepared a list of 6369 serials on punch cards, of which a number cannot be classified as periodicals, and many are not strictly medical. United Nations Educational, Scientific and C u l t u r a l Organization has published World Medical Periodicals, which includes 4000 items and covers medicine, biology, pharmacy, odontology, and veterinary medicine. The fourth edition of Periodica Medica, printed by Georg Thieme V e r l a g , lists 12,624 titles which have been i n print some time since 1900, and includes annual reports, congresses, bibliographies, and minor items of local character although i t is claimed to be a selective compilation. A p parently there are no common criteria for such lists. Publications Have Increased

Billings estimated 864 medical periodicals i n 1880. The increase has been spread over the 70 intervening years, and has been almost alarming since W o r l d W a r II. Publishing i n European countries, especially Germany and Italy, has made a remarkable recovery; some of the South American countries are especially prolific ; the Japanese are producing a surprising number of periodicals ; and the United States is not lagging behind. Since 1950, the American Medical Association has maintained a card file of journals, new to its collection, which have been received from various sources. A check of those which began publication from J a n u a r y 1950 to date produced the following figures: 80 new titles i n 1950, 73 i n 1951, 66 i n 1952, and 29 thus f a r i n 1953. This represents only the journals received i n this library and includes such widely divergent items as Alam Attib (World of Medicine) from Turkey, the Bulletin of Mental Health from the V i r g i n Islands, and the Japanese Planned Parenthood Quarterly, as well as journals of greater importance, such as Acta Neurochirurgica, Antibiotics and Chemotherapy, Metabolism, and the Journal of Histochemistry and Cytochemistry. 42

A Key to PHARMACEUTICAL AND MEDICINAL CHEMISTRY LITERATURE Advances in Chemistry; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 1956.

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D u r i n g this period a few periodicals have ceased publication and some have been combined. A n interesting record of these developments is furnished by the Medical L i b r a r y Association's Vital Notes on Medical Periodicals which gives information on their births, deaths, and marriages.


Medical Publishers

Who publishes this wealth of material? F i r s t there are the medical publishing houses: C. V . Mosby & Co., W . B . Saunders Co., Charles C Thomas, W i l l i a m s & W i l k i n s Co., and perhaps a dozen others i n this country; Butterworth & Co., J . & A . Churchill, and H . K . Lewis & Co., i n Great B r i t a i n ; J . B . Balliere et F i l s and Masson & Cie. i n F r a n c e ; E i n a r Munksgaards F o r l a g i n Denmark; L . Cappelli and Edizioni M i n e r v a Medica i n I t a l y ; S. K a r g e r and Benna Schwabe & Co. i n Switzer l a n d ; and Springer-Verlag, Georg Thieme, and U r b a n & Schwarzenberg i n Germany among many more. Next, there are the university presses and such organizations as the W i s t a r Institute of Anatomy and Biology and the M i l b a n k Memorial F u n d . A number of medical societies publish or sponsor their own periodicals. The American Medical Association is represented by the Journal and 9 specialty j o u r n a l s ; the B r i t i s h Medical Association has 15 periodicals to its credit besides the British Medical Journal; the American Heart Association fosters Circulation and a new journal called Circulation Research; the American College of Surgeons is respon sible for Surgery, Gynecology, and Obstetrics i n addition to its Bulletin. In fact, it seems that every hospital, clinic, and medical school i n every country publishes a Dulletin; every society has its own j o u r n a l or at least prints its trans actions; and. most international congresses produce volumes of their proceedings. Some of these publications are limited to material, which w i l l not appear elsewhere, but many of the articles are reprints, abbreviated reports, or a rehash of other papers by the authors. Others are of such minor importance that they merely clutter l i b r a r y shelves or waste baskets. Periodical Literature

Another source of increase i n periodical literature is the expanded bulk of i n dividual journals i n the last few years. In 1947 the volumes of the J.A.M.A. i n cluded 4242 pages; i n 1952, 5 years later, 5152 or about 900 more pages. In the issues for May, June, and J u l y 1947, 114 signed articles were printed, whereas i n the corresponding period for 1952 this number was increased to 195, about 80 more for these three months, which probably means at least 300 more for the year. In this respect the Journal is typical of periodicals a l l over the world. M u c h of this expansion probably can be attributed to the tremendous increase i n research i n recent years and what group is more responsible than the chemists and pharmacologists? A comparative count of articles i n the May, June, and J u l y issues of the J.A.M.A. for 1928 and 1953 vérifies this impression. Of the 159 signed articles i n 1928, 15% had chemical slant as shown by t i t l e ; of the 190 signed articles i n 1953, 36% were of chemical interest. The author's experience w i t h medical periodicals covers over 25 years of work on the Quarterly Cumulative Index Medicus (called The Quarterly by the staff and known :o most persons as Q.C.I.M.) and most of this paper is based on this source of information. In one of the volumes of the Q.C.I.M. for 1928, the titles under "Diabetes Mellitus, insulin i n " occupied a column, but the two substitutes, glukhormet (a vegetable product), and synthalin (a guanidine derivative), each re quired as much space. The " S u p r a r e n a l E x t r a c t s , " as they were designated then, accounted for two pages, while i n a 1951 volume, although the corresponding " A d r e n a l Preparations" took the same space, the additional "Adrenocortical Prep arations" covered 9 pages and "Adrenocorticotropic Hormone" 7 more. In 1928 drug therapy of tuberculosis included insulin, calcium, an extract of walnut leaves, and a pine oil preparation, and even as late as 1948, a column of the index was de voted to gold therapy. Today, the literature is flooded with papers on streptomy cin, para-aminosalicylic acid, thiosemicarbazone, and the latest recruits, isoniazid and its derivatives. V i t a m i n s were designated A , B, C, D, and Ε before they be came complex; the anterior pituitary was only suspected of such " t r o p i s m " as was later discovered ; histamine was collecting its forces, but no one wrote about antihista mines. In fact, the main difficulty then was identifying the constituents of proA Key to PHARMACEUTICAL AND MEDICINAL CHEMISTRY LITERATURE Advances in Chemistry; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 1956.


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prietary drugs, especially i n the German literature; now they are f a i r l y well con trolled, and that whole problem seems insignificant i n the fact of chemical sub stances grouped as anticonvulsant, adrenergic, sympathomimetic, spasmolytic, vaso constrictor, anticoagulant, and carcinogenic, or the pesticides, the solvents, and other industrial products, to mention examples. In addition to proprietary names everyone is being confronted w i t h a series of designations such as S N , S K , M & B , and R P combined w i t h numbers that r u n into the thousands, chemical terms which can be written i n several different ways, and the generic names of the manufacturer, the Council on Pharmacy and Chemistry, W H O , the B r i t i s h authorities, and any other interested parties. This a l l adds up to confusion which must be as harassing to the searcher as to the indexer. When any new product or group of products is introduced, the first report printed i n this country usually appears i n the Journal of the American Chemical Society where the chemical make-up and properties are set forth. This announce ment has scarcely been made before a crop of reports, first on animal experiments and then on administration to humans, both normal and sick, make their appear ance. A f t e r this, i f results are favorable, the field is open, the product is tried i n every condition which it could conceivably affect, and medical journals receive the impact. A t the height of this stage i n the development of the sulfonamides, the cross references i n the Q.C.I.M. from the subhead " t h e r a p y " listed almost 150 specific headings under which articles could be found, but in the last volume for 1951 there were only about one t h i r d that number. Therefore, a leveling-off process occurs as the value of a product is assessed. Simultaneously, reports on side re actions begin to filter i n and sometimes reach proportions which definitely l i m i t the application of a product or prohibit its further use. Both the therapeutic and toxic results stimulate a search for related compounds which may be more satisfactory, and endless derivatives, substituted compounds, homologs, analogs, and such are i n vestigated w i t h the results appearing in medical literature if they prove satisfactory enough to w a r r a n t t r i a l . To keep abreast of this accumulation of printed material the chemist has a wealth of literature i n his own field which is generously abstracted and indexed i n Chemical Abstracts. If he is interested in the clinical applications of his work, then the search of other sources is necessary. The two principal indexes to current medical literature are the Quarterly Cumulative Index Medicus, published by the American Medical Association, and the Current List of Medical Literature prepared by the A r m e d Forces Medical L i b r a r y . The former unfortunately is behind schedule i n production, but the latter is more up to date. Approximately one t h i r d of the periodicals covered is included i n both indexes, an unfortunate duplication of time, effort, and expense, but otherwise they supplement each other. The chemical searcher may find direct references to his subject under headings i n the Q.C.I.M., while an i n direct method of listing is used i n the Current List. The register of articles i n the latter arranges titles by publications; this should be a definite assistance to anyone desiring to follow the contents of any particular journal. Besides these general i n dexes there are those i n special fields, among them Cancer Current Literature, pub lished by the American Cancer Society, and national indexes, such as Index Medicus Danicus, covering the medical literature of one country. The abstract publications are an excellent source of information. Excerpta Medica, printed i n The Netherlands, appears monthly i n 16 sections, each devoted to a special field and written i n E n g l i s h , and covers literature from all over the world. Each volume of each section includes an index to its contents. The Ζ entr alb latter of Springer-Verlag, which resumed publication after W o r l d W a r II, is valuable for anyone who reads German. The coverage of both publications is world wide, and combined they survey most branches of medicine. Also, a B r i t i s h journal, Abstracts of World Medicine, appears monthly but includes a relatively small number of periodicals, mostly well represented in other sources. Besides these, a number of abstracts journals deal w i t h special subjects, such as Industrial Hygiene Digest prepared by the Industrial Hygiene Foundation; Tuberculosis Index and Abstracts of Current Literature issued i n Great B r i t a i n by the N a t i o n a l Association for Pre vention of Tuberculosis; Current Literature on Venereal Diseases, a publication of the Public Health Service; and Leukemia Abstracts prepared by the John C r e r a r



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L i b r a r y . I n addition, various annual reviews, advances, yearbooks, and special bibliographies are produced by different organizations. Of course, most important f o r current reference are the journals themselves. Out of 1900 journals received currently i n the Α Μ Α library, about 1700 are boxed, and only about 1000 are included i n the Q.C.LM. The fact that Chemical Abstracts chooses articles from most of them indicates that they must be of interest to chem ists. I f a worker i n this field feels i t is advantageous to consult issues of such pub lications as they are printed, rather than to wait u n t i l they are indexed and ab stracted, he can start by selecting medical titles from the list of abstracted journals i n Chemical Abstracts; then for further suggestions, he can turn to the Current List and the Q.C.LM. A f t e r this, i f he wants to undertake an inclusive coverage, 4000 titles are available i n World Medical Periodicals and the 12,000 i n Periodica Medica. If chemists are like physicians they tend to shy away from articles i n foreign languages, but direct consultation of periodicals outside English-speaking countries is not to be disregarded. A visiting German doctor recently made the statement that some procedures reported i n the U n i t e d States as new had been known i n Europe for a long time, and attributed the lack of information i n this country to the fact that foreign literature is not read. Suggestions for Periodicals

This seems to be an excellent opportunity to make certain suggestions regarding periodicals. The title of another paper on this symposium attracts the author's attention because i t uses the phrase " f e r t i l i t y of medical literature." There is the root of the problem that confronts bibliographers, and for this reason thought might be given to contraception. Since, at present, i t is apparent that i t is almost i m possible to exercise bibliographic control over scientific literature by indexes, ab stract journals, and similar devices i n any w a y that combines complete coverage w i t h currency, i t might be more practical to check its production. Before a new periodical is launched, its actual value to scientific knowledge and research should be honestly assessed. One letter from an editor complained that he could not attract contributors because his journal was not indexed i n the Q.C.LM.; he did not seem to realize that authors felt no need f o r his publication as a n outlet for their papers. A number of letters ask whether a certain prospective periodical w i l l be included i n the Index when i t is still only a gleam i n the progenitor's eye and long before the first issue has appeared. Eventually this attitude might lead to a stamp of approval i n imitation of the Α Μ Α Councils, "Indexed i n the Q.C.LM" There are several ways i n which the number of papers i n any journal could be controlled. F o r instance, i f a group of investigators has done a piece of work on some problem, is i t necessary to split i t up into four or five articles a l l published in the same issue of a periodical, or could i t be printed as one report, which might not only save space i n the journal, but also cut entries i n an index and still give the paper ample coverage? A l o n g the same line, must a separate report be made every time a different animal or a different drug is used i n an investigation? This prac tice is especially characteristic of a French publication, and one reason w h y i t was impractical to retain it on the list of periodicals indexed i n the Q.C.I.M. More discretion might be exercised i n the selection of papers for publication. Is a short discussion which summarizes articles by other authors, but offers no critical material and nothing original, worth printing? Should another case report of a f a i r l y common condition be published unless i t adds something new to medical knowledge? In other words, should encouragement be given to the attitude toward publication which was criticized aptly by Bowers, U n i v e r s i t y of U t a h College of Medicine, at a recent meeting: " D o n ' t get it r i g h t — j u s t get i t written"? Certain features of the format make for speed i n handling. The title, the volume, the number, and the date of each issue should appear either on the cover or on the first page where they can be quickly located, and not hidden i n some incon spicuous spot among the advertisements. The title of an article should preferably be brief, but i t definitely should indicate its content. F o r example, hypothetically, when the use of a new product i n peptic ulcer is reported, the title "Peptic U l c e r : Report of Case" is entirely inadequate; " N e w Treatment f o r Peptic U l c e r " is not much better; w h y not "Enterogastrone Therapy of Peptic U l c e r : Case R e p o r t " or some other phrasing that w i l l give A Key to PHARMACEUTICAL AND MEDICINAL CHEMISTRY LITERATURE Advances in Chemistry; American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 1956.


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specific information? Even worse are the vague titles beginning "Random Thoughts o n — " or " A F e w Observations o n — " and worst of a l l those made from quotations which may indicate the philosophical trend of the paper, but give no idea of the sub ject matter. N o t h i n g is more helpful to an indexer and also to a reader than a clear statement of its purpose at the beginning of an article and a summary at the end which out lines the main points discussed. It is certainly assumed that any author has made some investigation of the literature before he writes on any subject. If a review article or another paper summarizes this material, i t is not necessary to go over the whole process again. A gold medal to the writer who advises, " F o r a survey of the literature the reader may consult the recent article by Smith and Jones," giving the definite reference i n a footnote, and then begins his own contribution. In some of the best scientific publications, the use of initials for various prep arations and procedures is becoming a common practice which may be an economy for the printer but an anathema for the reader. F r o m long usage B M R , B C G , E C G , B P , C A , T B , and Q C I M have become f a i r l y f a m i l i a r , but what are E O T , D M F , R P M , T A B D T , T A T , and V D R L ? H o w many can identify the following i n your own field: D A D P S , D H E - 4 5 , A M P , C T A B , T E T M S , F H S , and I N A H ? I n despair one uninformed but conscientious manuscript editor interpreted I B M as International Brother of Magicians because that was the only definition which could be found i n the dictionary! O f course, the meaning of these initials is usually explained i n the text, but where? If they must be used, a footnote on the first page should list them and their equivalents. There probably are objections to these suggestions, which incidentally have been disregarded i n the title of this paper and the use of the initials J.A.M.A. and Q.C.I.M., but adopting them would improve medical and chemical periodicals f o r the reader as well as the indexer. A t any rate i t is hoped that those who write or edit may give them consideration. They are offered as the author's opinions and not those of her sponsor, the American Medical Association. RECEIVED

September

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13, 1954.


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